


Dear Life

by cuubism



Series: tumblr prompts [15]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arguing, Getting Back Together, Himbo Alec Lightwood, Humor, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Peril, Sappy Ending, idiots to lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:47:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29254680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuubism/pseuds/cuubism
Summary: Feeling suddenly quite petty, and quite angry, though he was in no position to be either, Magnus leaned back and away from Alec’s hand, snarling, “I don’t need your help.”“You can yell at me later, just let me pull you up!”“I can do it my—”His handhold gave out.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Series: tumblr prompts [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1887421
Comments: 43
Kudos: 213
Collections: Favorite Malec Stories





	Dear Life

**Author's Note:**

> for anon on tumblr, who prompted:
>
>> 23? Malec? Idk I like angst ☺️
> 
> 23: “Just tell why you did it!” “Because I’m in love with you, okay!”
> 
> This isn't even angst, I'm so sorry anon 😔

Hanging from the edge of a rogue interdimensional portal wasn’t exactly how Magnus preferred to spend his evenings, but alas it was where he found himself this night. The portal swirled below him, dragging him downwards to Lilith knew where, and try as he might Magnus could not seem to find the strength to pull himself out.

All he could do was hold on to the amorphous edge of the thing and try not to fall in any further.

He knew it was a mistake to help the _Shadowhunters_ with a problem. Incompetent fools, the lot of them.

“Magnus!”

Magnus grit his teeth, scrambling desperately to pull himself out and only slipping further. As if this day wasn’t bad enough, his beautiful accursed Shadowhunter sort-of-ex-sort-of-almost-boyfriend was here. Magnus had been trying and failing to get his heart to forget him, though it wasn’t exactly _easy_ when Alec insisted on continually inserting himself into Magnus’s life.

_“Magnus!”_

“I’m a little _busy_ here—” Magnus tried to bite, but lost his train of thought as a particularly strong current in the portal yanked on him and he almost lost his grip.

Alec skidded to his knees beside him, reaching out a hand. His eyes looked wild. There was a smear of ichor across his forehead and a bloody tear in the shoulder of his jacket. “Grab on to my hand!”

Curse him for being so pretty and wonderful and concerned and fucking _impossible_. After the first few promising evenings spent together, Alec had seemingly changed his mind about them, and subsequently made his disinterest in Magnus quite clear. He was probably only saving him now so the Institute would get to keep their most stupidly helpful Warlock.

Now if only Magnus’s foolish heart could get the message that he wasn’t _wanted_.

Feeling suddenly quite petty, and quite _angry_ , though he was in _no_ position to be either, Magnus leaned back and away from Alec’s hand, snarling, “I don’t need your _help_.”

“You can yell at me later, just let me pull you up!”

“I can do it my—”

His handhold gave out.

Suddenly Magnus found himself tumbling, the world spinning and swirling around him like he was falling down a drain. His heart lurched into his throat, but it lasted only a moment before he was splashing down, quite literally, into the center of an enormous lake.

He burst up through the surface, choking and spluttering, treading water with some difficulty as his clothes started weighing him down.

He looked around. It was completely dark, no lights anywhere to be seen, and the shore seemed quite far away.

Well. Wasn’t that just _swell_.

Magnus was just about ready to swear off ever even _talking_ to Shadowhunters again when there was a _yelp_ and a loud _splash_ beside him, and a second later Alec’s head popped up out of the water.

Magnus could not believe what he was seeing. “Did you _follow_ me in, or are you so incompetent you actually fell in yourself?”

“I followed you.” He said it so deadpan, totally ignoring Magnus’s jibe, that Magnus swallowed the rest of the rude words balanced on the back of his tongue.

“Why on _earth_ —”

“I couldn’t let you just land in a dangerous place by yourself.”

Magnus pressed his lips together, looking away. “Can’t let the Institute’s pet Warlock get eaten by sharks, I suppose.”

“No, I— wait, are there sharks here?” Alec spun in a circle, looking around as if one might pop its head out of the water at any moment, and Magnus sighed.

“It’s a _lake_ , Alexander.”

“Oh. Right.”

Magnus rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “If you’re quite finished being a self-sacrificing idiot, can we please get out of here?”

“Right. Yes. You know how?”

“It’s a simple portal.”

He reached out a hand and attempted to create said portal—

—and nothing happened.

Magnus snapped his fingers, again and again.

Nothing.

“What’s going on?”

“I’m out of magic.” Despair rose in Magnus’s throat as he tried, again and again, to reach his magic—only to find nothing. “All those demons—”

“Take mine.”

Magnus looked at him in disbelief. Alec reached out a hand.

“We’ve done it before, haven’t we?”

 _That was before you decided you didn’t want me_ , Magnus thought, but didn’t say.

Instead he took Alec’s hand, closing his eyes at the rush of power Alec pushed into him.

In less than a moment a portal was rushing over them and they were gone.

It spat them out in a heap on Magnus’s living room floor, a torrent of water cascading over them and into the expensive carpet before Magnus managed to shut the portal. Once he did, he flopped onto his back, staring up at the ceiling, breathing hard.

He could just make out the slowly-moving form of Alec beside him. “You still alive?”

Alec groaned, shifting onto his back next to Magnus. “I wish I wasn’t. Are your portals always so hectic?”

 _“Your_ portal, darling. That was _your_ magic. _My_ portals are elegant and smooth, like a trip down the coast on a luxury yacht.”

Alec groaned again. “Please don’t mention boats. Or _water_.”

Magnus giggled, and then he was full-on laughing—at Alec, at the situation, at himself. Oh, it was just like him to get in a near-death experience with the person he was trying to get over.

Alec grumbled and slowly turned on his side to face Magnus. “What’s so funny?”

Magnus turned on his side as well, and suddenly found himself _much_ closer to Alec than he’d expected. They were almost nose-to-nose, their knees just about bumping. Magnus was very tempted to brush his wet hair out of his eyes, but restrained himself.

“Oh, just—” Magnus waved a hand— “Almost drowned on another world helping a man who hates me. And then saved by that man. It’s funny, the tragedy of my life, is all.”

Alec’s eyes went wide. “I don’t _hate_ you!”

“Fine, fine,” Magnus conceded, “dislike, don’t care for, however you want to phrase it—”

Alec grabbed his wrist to still his movement. “Magnus, none of that is true.”

Magnus chuckled nervously and tried to pull his arm away, but Alec’s grip was firm. “It’s alright, Alec, I know there’s nothing between us anymore, you don’t have to pretend otherwise for my sake. It’s fine if you saved me because I’m useful to you. I’m used to it. It’s _fine_.”

“That’s not why.”

Magnus wasn’t sure he wanted to hear what came next in this conversation, but still he said, very quietly, “Then tell me why.”

For once, Alec didn’t look away as if he didn’t want Magnus to be able to read him. He just met Magnus’s gaze and said, like the very words meant his death, “Because I’m in love with you.”

If not for the sudden painful fluttering of his chest, Magnus might have burst out laughing. _“What?”_

Alec just held his gaze evenly, looking sort of resigned.

“Alec,” Magnus said, when he finally gained control of his heart, “ _you’re_ the one who ended it before it even had a chance to begin.”

“I know.” Alec rubbed at his eyes, seeming very tired. “I didn’t want to, but… everything was getting complicated. With my family, with the Clave—there were several points where I wasn’t sure I was even going to get through it with my name or my reputation or even my runes intact. I just—didn’t want you to get swept up in it.”

“You think I wasn’t aware of all that? I can make my own decisions!”

“I _know_ , I just— I’m sorry. I was going to try to fix it, but by that point it seemed like you just hated me.”

“I never hated you,” Magnus said quietly. “I was angry with you, yes, for treating me like we were strangers. Disappointed, maybe. I never hated you.”

Alec sighed. “I was just trying to protect you.” He looked around at their positions on the floor, the puddle of water still surrounding them. “But instead I almost got you killed.”

He looked so forlorn about it that Magnus had to lay a hand on his cheek. “Come now. I’m more than capable of that on my own.” He tapped Alec’s forehead. “As are you, Mister ‘Jump into an Unknown Portal Headfirst.’”

“Fine, fine. Make fun of me as much as you want if it’ll make you feel better.” Magnus was gratified to see that he was smiling as he said it.

That smile burst open a bloom of hope in Magnus’s chest, hope that all the feelings he’d been squashing down weren’t actually misdirected or self-destructive. Hope that what they had once had might still be there, just needing some kindling. 

“What do you say,” he began, “we get up off the floor, put on some dry clothes, and go for ‘we-almost-died-but-hooray-we-didn’t-die’ drinks?”

Alec’s smile widened until it lit up his whole face. “Really? You want that?”

“I do. Because, I hate to say it, but—” Magnus laid a hand over Alec’s heart, smiling when Alec wrapped his own over it—“I’ve been a little hopelessly in love with you, my dear.”

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](https://cuubism.tumblr.com) :)


End file.
